Alice Crane Williams

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Alice Crane Williams
A white woman with dark hair in a short bouffant style, wearing a dark top with a crocheted lace neckline
Alice Crane, later Williams, from a 1926 publication
Born
Alice Ella Crane

August 29, 1879
Garrettsville, Ohio, U.S.
DiedOctober 24, 1964
University Heights, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation(s)Composer, literary editor
RelativesHart Crane (nephew)

Alice Ella Crane Williams (August 29, 1879 – October 24, 1964) was an American composer and literary editor. She was president of the Composers and Authors Association of America.

Early life and education[edit]

Alice Crane was born in Garrettsville, Ohio, the daughter of Arthur Edward Crane and Ella M. Beardsley Crane. Her brother was confectioner Clarence Arthur Crane, the inventor of Life Savers candy,[1] and her nephew was poet Hart Crane.[2] She graduated from Hiram College,[3] and pursued further music studies in Europe.

Career[edit]

Crane was a pianist, composer, and lecturer.[4] Her compositions were called "quite modern in trend and of immense interest" by a 1926 publication.[5] She also taught music.[6]

Crane gave a performances of her recent works at the National League of American Pen Women conference in Washington in 1926,[7] and at the Poetry Society of America's annual concert in New York in 1927.[8] She was president of the Composers and Authors Association of America in the 1940s.[9] From 1945 to 1964, Williams edited American Weave, a literary journal based in Cleveland, with her husband, Loring Eugene Williams.[10]

Compositions[edit]

  • "Mountain Harmony" (1926)[4][11]
  • "Touch Me Not" (1926)[4]
  • "Cloudland" (1926, setting for text by William Sharp)[4][11]
  • "The Veil" (1926, setting for text by Walter de la Mare)[4]
  • "Music" (1926)[4]
  • "The Revelation" (1926, setting for text by Edwin Markham)[4]
  • "Danish Suite" (1926)[7]
  • "River Trilogy" (1926, lyrics by Ruth Mason Rice)[7]
  • "This thy hour o soul" (1953, setting for text by Walt Whitman)[12]
  • "In the Cathedral" (1954, organ suite)[13]
  • "Flight of the Mariner" (1954, a song cycle based on poems of Dorothy Rudolph Byard)[14]
  • "Autumn Song" (1960, setting for text by William Blake)[12]
  • "March Triomphale", "Voix Celeste", "Vox Humana" (date unknown)[15]

Personal life[edit]

Crane married Loring E. Williams in 1937. She died in 1964, at the age of 85, in University Heights, Ohio.[16] Loring Williams organized the Hart Crane and Alice Crane Williams Memorial Fund, to support literary publications, and an annual poetry award.[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Life Savers". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve University. 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  2. ^ Bryer, Jackson R. (1990). Sixteen Modern American Authors: Volume 2, a Survey of Research and Criticism Since 1972. Duke University Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8223-0976-5.
  3. ^ "Among Our Schools and Teachers". The Musician. 4 (6): 235. June 1899.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Personalities: Alice Crane, A Natural Composer". Musical Advance. 14. August 1926.
  5. ^ "Alice Crane". Music News. 18 (2): 28. November 26, 1926.
  6. ^ "Alice Crane". Musical Observer. 26 (10): 40. October 1927.
  7. ^ a b c "Studio Notes". Musical Observer. 26 (1): 41. January 1927.
  8. ^ "Untitled brief news item". Musical Observer. 26 (3): 45. March 1927.
  9. ^ "Convention of Composers and Authors Group Opens Here". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 1946-06-07. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-05-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Loring Eugene Williams Correspondence, Maine State Library.
  11. ^ a b "Crane". Music News. 18 (2): 36. October 1, 1926.
  12. ^ a b "Alice Crane Williams Song Texts". LiederNet. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  13. ^ United States Copyright Office (1946). 1946-1954 Copyright Registration Cards (O-Z).
  14. ^ United States Copyright Office (1946). 1946-1954 Copyright Registration Cards (O-Z).
  15. ^ Heinrich, Adel (1991-06-30). Organ and Harpsichord Music by Women Composers: An Annotated Catalog. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-0-313-38790-6.
  16. ^ "Williams". The Plain Dealer. 1964-10-26. p. 45. Retrieved 2024-05-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Cook, Julia A. (1967-09-28). "Helping Hand Extended to Poets by Loring Williams/Julia A. Cook". Journal Tribune. p. 21. Retrieved 2024-05-25.

External links[edit]